EmployStream makes the hiring process a paper-free snap

After working in software development for 20 years, Rob Sable decided that there must be a way to streamline the hiring process. He was right, and in 2014 he started EmployStream, which uses Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to digitize and customize employers’ hiring processes.

Sable had worked for a large software company before he became CIO of staffing and recruitment company Alliance Solutions Group in 2012. Alliance was hiring about 15,000 people a year at the time and Sable was in charge of overhauling and upgrading the company’s technology platforms. “The cost of hiring a single person really takes a lot of work,” explains Sable. “With 15,000 [employees] a year you have to go through a process of paperwork and other onboarding.”

Sable approached Alliance owner Aaron Grossman about developing a new hiring system. “Combined with the owner’s background and my background in software applications development we came up with a prototype to streamline the process of getting someone hired and plugged in to payroll,” he recalls. “You can do it on tablets, phones, wherever you are. What we ended up with was a system on its own.”Rob Sable
In October 2014, Sable founded EmployStream, a paperless system that helps high-volume employers avoid mistakes, expenses and delays in the onboarding process and integrate their Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and payroll. “People make mistakes and fail, even if they get it right 99 percent of the time,” Sable says, adding that EmployStream takes the risk of human error out of the mix.

Alliance, which was Sable’s first customer with the pilot in 2013, was able to save $150,000 in labor costs during the first year it used EmployStream. The software officially launched earlier this year.

Sable says the EmployStream system helps virtually any type of employer – from small companies without HR departments to staffing companies. The system eliminates redundancies and paperwork. “It’s for anyone who hires 100-plus people a month,” he says. “The way we built the system is that anyone can load any of their documents in it – tax forms, customer specific documents, employment agreements.”

The EmployStream system can also be tailored to incorporate a company’s color scheme and logo. “Within a few hours you have a system online with a job board, application page,” says Sable. “I think it has applicability to any organization that has to engage with people or has paperwork.”

Sable began actively selling EmployStream this summer and has a handful of customers. “No one has told me ‘you’re on the wrong track, we’re going back to pen and paper,’” he says. “We’re just focused on getting the word out to more and more companies.”

In addition to staffing companies, Sable is now targeting non-profits and small local chains. “If I can help non-profits streamline costs, I like serving spaces that are under-served,” he says. “It’s hard to say no to the something that’s better and more reliable.”

Karin Connelly Rice enjoys telling people's stories, whether it's a promising startup or a life's passion. Over the past 20 years she has reported on the local business community for publications such as Inside Business and Cleveland Magazine. She was editor of the Rocky River/Lakewood edition of In the Neighborhood and was a reporter and photographer for the Amherst News-Times. At Fresh Water she enjoys telling the stories of Clevelanders who are shaping and embracing the business and research climate in Cleveland.